Brendan Gleeson Cast as President Donald Trump in James Comey Limited Series at CBS Studios

Michael Ausiello

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Move over, Alec Baldwin. There’s a new Donald Trump in town.

Harry Potter vet Brendan Gleeson has been cast as President Trump in CBS Studios’ four-hour limited series based on former FBI Director James Comey’s bestselling book, A Higher Loyalty. As we reported early Monday, Jeff Daniels will star as Comey in the as-yet-untitled project, which is being written and directed by Billy Ray (Captain Phillips, Shattered Glass). The cast also includes Michael Kelly (House of Cards) as Acting FBI Director Andrew McCabe and Jennifer Ehle (A Gifted Man) as Comey’s wife Patrice.

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CBS executives will decide closer to the limited series’ TBD airdate whether it will air on Showtime or CBS All Access (or potentially both).

“It’s hard to imagine a bigger acting challenge than playing Donald Trump,” Ray said in a statement to TVLine. “You have to have presence, and a singular kind of dynamism. You also have to have the courage and the will to play Trump’s psychology from the inside out. Oh, and you have to be spectacularly talented and watchable. Not many actors check all those boxes. Brendan does. I’m ecstatic about this.”

Gleeson is currently starring in Mr. Mercedes on Audience.

Ray will serve as an EP alongside Alex Kurtzman, Shane Salerno and Heather Kadin.

In A Higher Loyalty, Comey recounts his tumultuous 2013-2017 stint as the nation’s seventh FBI director, during which he oversaw the Hillary Clinton email investigation as well as possible ties between the Trump campaign and Russia. The book also details Trump’s very public 2017 firing of Comey.

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